Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout

Brewed by Bear Republic Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Healdsburg, California USA

Black, opaque, enormous frothy, creamy head that lingered. Roasted malts highlighted the smell that included espresso and unsweetened chocolate. Just the right amount of hoppiness played off the malts to create a beautifully balanced taste. Flavors of chocolate and coffee with caramel in the background. Smooth and creamy, this is a very drinkable beer that hides its high ABV, so be careful.

Bottle Pours dark black with tan long lasting head thats nicely laced. Sweet hop aroma. Roast flavour which ends in a sweet aftertaste followed by hops. Not as over the top in sweet, alcohol or depth of flavours as many Imperial Stouts

Bottle pours a blackish color with a decent off white head and spot lace. The aroma is of coffee, chocolate, and lactic. The flavor is sweet and chocolate, dark fruits, lactic milk chocolate, and some hops in the finish. The palate is silky smooth and medium rich. This is pretty good. This is fairly mild for an Impy, but I like it none the less.

Pours nice, thick chocolate head, nice black liquid. Nice nose too, roasted malt and coffee. It falls off from there, waaaay too sweet for a stout and quite hoppy. Disappointing to me.

Bottle: pours a dark black with a frothy tan head, aroma of chocoalte, roasted malts and coffee, taste is malty, coffee and somewhat bitter, a bit of the hops come through in the finish. Pretty good brew but not in the upper class of the impy stouts.

It’s good - but not overly so. Aroma is dark and malty, almost molasses-like. Flavor is dark, roasted and slightly bitter. Sweet, strong and packing a small punch.

Pours a near black opaque colour with a small tan head that fades to a solid cap, leaving some lacing. The nose is dominated by robust caramel, toffee and dark fruits with notes of molasses and grahm cracker. The flavour is also mostly dominated by caramel and ripe dark fruit, but only in the initial flavour, which is also accompanied by a lactic sweetness. The finish roasted malt, espresso and chocolate, having a dry, bitter and roasted quality to it. The bitterness from the chinook hops really comes out in the finsh and aftertaste, but is almost absent from the initial and mid-palate profile. The texture is thick and syrupy, seeming to have almost no carbonation in the first sip. The tingle of CO2 takes a second to become noticed above its viscous body. Overall this is a very good imperial that has its strong and weak points.

Pours a dark black color with a thin tan head that fades out really quick. the nos is all malted milk chocolate with roasted coffee beans and some hints of vanilla. the flavor is smooth and has a texture of thick syrup. You can really taste the malted lactic sugar that was added as well as the chocolate notes. The booze is not that noticeable with all the other flavors that are on your palate. The finish is really smooth and you can taste some hop presance but nothing too bitter which is nice.